Nevada Democrats Lead Republicans by 90,000 in Voter Rolls

A voter wears an 'I Voted' sticker after voting at the Centennial Center polling station during the first day of early voting in Nevada on Oct. 20, 2012.

Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 90,000 in Nevada, according to the final voter registration count before the Nov. 6 election in one of the nation’s most politically competitive states.

Nevada has 526,986 active registered Democrats and 436,799 Republicans, a difference of 90,187, according to statistics compiled by the office of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, a Democrat. The voter registration deadline in Nevada was Oct. 16.

Democratic registration rose by 93,890 from 433,096 in May, a 22 percent increase.

Compared to the November 2008 election, Democratic registration fell by 4,331 from 531,317 and Republican registration rose by 6,205 from 430,594. President Barack Obama won Nevada by 12.5 percentage points that year.

Democrats account for 42 percent of Nevada’s 1.26 million registered voters, compared with 35 percent for Republicans and 17 percent for “non-partisan” voters.

About 68 percent of Nevada’s voters live in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and its suburbs. Democrats have 127,471 more registered voters than Republicans in Clark, while Republicans lead by 37,284 in the rest of the state.

Early voting begins tomorrow in Nevada, which has six electoral votes at stake.

Though Obama easily won Nevada four years ago, the state isn’t a Democratic lock, partly because Nevada’s 11.8 percent unemployment rate in September was the highest in the nation. Over the past century, Nevada has voted for the White House winner more frequently than any other state in the nation.